Back in Ettlingen

[dagibbs]

I have made it back from Grenoble, France to Ettlingen, Germany. The drive mostly went well, except there was one section across Switzerland that was stop and go for about 30km for no apparent reason. Well, maybe volume, but nothing more than that, and why are all those people out driving somewhere on a Sunday?

Grenoble is gorgeous. A&T's apartment is a lovely 8th floor flat (top of building) with huge terraces with views of mountains all around them. I had quite a pleasant visit with them.

The Swiss seem to love building tunnels. I went through multiple 3km or longer tunnels in my trip across Switzerland. In feels like they look for any excuse to build a tunnel... "hey, there's a big cliff in the way... let's put in the tunnel", "hey, there's a little cliff in the way, let's put in a tunnel", even, "hey there's a farmer's field with two cows in the way... that one needs a 3km tunnel". Sure, they have mountains -- but so does France in that area, and the Swiss had far more tunnels.

There is something very relaxing about not having to worry about, and always look for, the cops while driving at speeds well in excess of 100 km/h. And passing a "plolizei" at 140 is kind of nice.

Also, Grenoble has more pretty women than either Germany or the UK. (Ok, not in total, probably, but as a visible part of the population, definitely.)

Comments

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

Sounds gorgeous! Plus, tunnels are cool.

I think you mean "polizei": "plolitzei" are the folks who moderate the communities like cat_macros.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Fixed.

[rmeidaking.livejournal.com]

Switzerland and tunnels: I noticed one place along the south shore of the lake east of Meiringen, where they were *building* a tunnel. The road was currently exposed, but they were building a roof over it. Apparently this section of road is subject to rockfalls and avalanches, and the decision was made that it would be easier to just roof it over. I suspect that by next year, a casual observer wouldn't realize the hill had grown artificially.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Hm... some of the areas I went through did look like the tunnel had been built over, too.